NEWSLETTER
Arturas Karnisovas means business.
After the organization officially announced his hiring yesterday, Karnisovas fired former GM Gar Forman, before politely guiding John Paxson into a senior advisory role. The new executive VP of basketball operations also added two new names to the Bulls front office: the Pelicans former director of basketball administration, JJ Polk, and the Nuggets director of pro personnel, Pat Connelly. But even after all of that, Karnisovas took time to announce that hiring a new general manager is next on the to-do list. And he’s not wasting any time.
Less than a day later, we’ve gleaned an early understanding of the Bulls short list. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski announced that Chicago has been given permission to interview the following three candidates: 76ers senior VP of player personnel Marc Eversley, Clippers assistant GM Mark Hughes, and Orlando Magic assistant GM Matt Lloyd.
ESPN Sources: The Bulls and Arturas Karnisovas had permission granted to interview three of the franchise's GM candidates this week: Marc Eversley (76ers), Mark Hughes (Clippers) and Matt Lloyd (Magic).
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 14, 2020
All three have been mentioned prior to this report, so not a single one should jump out at you right now. In fact, the bigger takeaway should probably be who isn’t on this list – Denver Nuggets assistant GM Calvin Booth.
Not only did Karnisovas have a strong prior relationship with Booth, but he was certainly perceived as one of the more intriguing candidates in the field. However, the popular speculation seems to be that Denver is interested in promoting Booth to their own GM opening, so perhaps that’s in the works. Also not on this initial list is OKC’s Troy Weaver or Dallas’ Michael Finley – two names the Sun-Times’ shared as prospective candidates.
Still, the Bulls initial list should be considered solid, and it’s no small deal that they’ve been granted permission to move forward on these three qualified candidates.
Eversley and Hughes have been in charge of a player personnel department in the past, which could be even more of what Karnisovas is looking for. During yesterday’s conference call, Karnisovas said he wants a GM who “will complement and not have the same skill set that I do.” So while the scouting and evaluation background of these two candidates may be similar, the experience building player and team connections would be a great addition to this staff. I think it’s safe to say that wasn’t Forman or Paxson’s strong suit.
As for Matt Lloyd (the once upon a time Bulls employee), he still holds an attractive skillset. A former media coordinator and scout, he has plenty of experience interacting with the kinds of people who will be around the team daily. With Karnisovas likely looking for someone to also be the media’s “face,” the interest here makes sense.
Although, I think it’s important to note that Karnisovas said this process will be diverse and extensive. Yahoo Sports reported that Karnisovas “plans to hire a person of color to be the franchise’s general manager.” If this is true, Eversley and Hughes (both black) could be the primary candidates. In any case, I wouldn’t be surprised if more names pop up over the next week or so. Karnisovas said yesterday that he plans to take his time with the process and labeled it a “very important decision.”
Agreed. Take your time, Art (can I call you Art? Imma call you Art). You got this!
